what amounted to saying that the Creator is not distinct from creation, denying the attributes by which He is distinguished and denying His magnitude—so much so that when the Muʿtazilah know that He is living, knowing and powerful, they say, “We have come to know His reality and essence.” They say that He is not separate from anything else. Either they describe Him as something nonexistent, saying, “He is neither within the world nor outside it, neither this nor that,” or they make Him indwell created beings or identify Him with the very existence of created beings.

Ibn al-Mubārak therefore explained that the Lord, glorified and exalted be He, is over His Throne, distinct and separate from His creation. He mentioned a limit because the Jahmiyyah used to say that He has no limit, and that whatever has no limit cannot be distinct from created beings or above the world, since that would necessarily entail a limit.

When they asked the Commander of the Believers in every field, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, “By what do we know Him?” he replied, “By His being above His heavens, over His Throne, distinct from His creation.” They then mentioned to him the necessary implication of this, which the Jahmiyyah deny, and by denying it they deny that which entails it